The enemies are not extremely smart, their lack of A.I. being substituted by their number. That's why you have to try hard to chain combos in order to take down as many enemies as possible in a short time. As you further progress in the game, you will encounter opponents that will use knives or bats, who will force you to use a more tactical approach of the combat using evasive methods in order to isolate each enemy from his group. Either you use multiple jumps and hit them from behind or use the batarang to stun them. What would be a 3rd person action game without boss battles? Batman: Arkham Asylum makes no exception from this rule and gives you the opportunity to fight against Poison Ivy, Bane and even Joker (his alter ego actually). These are fights that imply a different approach, each boss having a different weakness which has to be found and exploited in order to defeat them. An interesting encounter is Scarecrow, an enemy that will induce Batman into a state of insanity in which he has to fight against his biggest fears. In these moments the game changes the perspective into a platformer, forcing you to control Batman from a 2D view helping him to hide from the killer look of a titan version of Scarecrow.

Gadgets play an important role in the gameplay. The Wayne's Tech toys can be acquired or upgraded as you progress in the game. You can have a triple batarang, an armored bat suit, a powerful batclaw which can pull huge objects from a distance, explosive gel that can blow out destructible objects, a cryptographic sequencer which can bypass security systems, or a line launcher which helps you cross big chasms. Such a pity that you cannot drive the batmobile or the dues ex machine, but a next installment will probably give these opportunities.

Unlike the NPC's in the game, Batman can use the environment to his advantage. He can blow out walls and ceilings, he can climb on high buildings and walls with the help of his equipment but he can also hide and scan the surroundings from vantage points. These vantage points are some kind of gargoyle statues on which Batman can instantly climb with the grappling hook and from where he can perform inverted takedowns or glide-kicks. Both maneuvers are extremely useful when you want to eliminate armed groups of enemies. The inverted takedown gives the opportunity to take out quickly an isolated individual by hanging him under a gargoyle statue, while glide-kick makes you fly to the nearest target knocking him down with a single hit (while gliding you are invisible to the enemies). But nothing is more useful than the Detective Vision Mode. It's an Xray view which gives the location of the nearest opponents and other useful DNA information or footprint trails. Without it, secret objectives and challenges would have been much harder to complete.